Summary:

Losing your iPhone or your iPad can be a devastating experience. Luckily technology has evolved over the years, and Apple’s incredible Find My iPhone app and service helps worried owners improve their chances of recovering a missing device. If the device can’t be recovered, iPhone and iPad users can remotely wipe it to make sure their personal data is erased from the device.

The only way to make sure Find My iPhone can help you is to properly set it up on your device. In order to do this, you need to navigate to Settings → iCloud → Find My iPhone and toggle the switch to on. Users can optionally enable the Send Last Location option so that your device pings Apple when the battery is close to running out.

Find My iPhone protects itself from being shut off by using an Activation Lock feature. According to the official webpage for Find My iPhone, “Activation Lock . . . starts working the moment you turn on Find My iPhone. From then on, your Apple ID and password will be required before anyone can turn off Find My iPhone, erase your device, or reactivate it.”

Once the settings for Find My iPhone are enabled, users can quickly access the location of their iPhone and iPad using the iCloud website, as well as Apple’s Find My iPhone app on another device.

The Find My iPhone app allows you to quickly and easily see the location of all devices that are registered to your Apple ID. You can view the location of your device on a map, which is great for locating the whereabouts of the device.

If the device is any location that you don’t recognize, it’s highly advised that you contact the police instead of attempting to recover the device yourself.

The Find My iPhone app also allows you to send an alert to your iPhone or your iPad to play a high pitched sound. If you have a tendency to silence your device, the sound alert will override your settings.

While it’s always advised to secure your iPhone or your iPad with a passcode, not everyone does this. Find My iPhone includes a Lost Mode feature, which lets users remotely lock and track a missing device. You can even provide contact information in case the devices found by someone who is honest enough to return it.

Again, never attempt to recover the device yourself if you don’t recognize its location.

Lastly, if all else fails, Find My iPhone lets users remotely erase their iPhone or their iPad from the app or from the iCloud website.

iPhones and iPads are stolen and lost on an hourly basis. It’s a horrible feeling to not know where your devices or if it is fallen into the wrong hands, but luckily Apple has provided users with a way to locate and secure their devices remotely. The Find My iPhone app is a must-have for anyone who owns an Apple device.

Find My iPhone requires iOS 8.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus.